The film's main scheme has professor Stewart granting his mathematical-genius eight-year-old's fervent wish to meet Brigitte Bardot (then at the height of her sex appeal). The two go to Paris, and young Erasmus (Billy Mumy) is kissed by Bardot and given a puppy
Prior to this, the boy's mathematical skills have been misappropriated by everyone, from his sister's boyfriend (Fabian), who needs he1p with homework, to a British con man (John Williams), who illegally wins gambling bets to alleged1y finance a humanitarian arts foundation... Fabian also comes up with another idea for Erasmus to pick racetrack horses
Stewart is a poetic, whimsical college professor who wants the simple life with his wife on a rather primitive, decaying Mississippi riverboat home Stewart's accordion skills are brought to life, even if briefly, as he insists that the entire family take up musical instruments But the pre-teen son is tone deaf, and when he takes up painting he turns out to have no eye for color either The retarded discovery that he is a math prodigy brings more trouble than satisfaction, as the perplexed Stewart sadly discovers
Glynis Johns, who had been on the point of marrying Stewart in "No Highway in the Sky" back in 1951, was at last Stewart's wife in the film...
Bardot provided some diversion for the French press when she pronounced Stewart, then 57, "a gentleman with ageless sex appeal, enormous charm."
Prior to this, the boy's mathematical skills have been misappropriated by everyone, from his sister's boyfriend (Fabian), who needs he1p with homework, to a British con man (John Williams), who illegally wins gambling bets to alleged1y finance a humanitarian arts foundation... Fabian also comes up with another idea for Erasmus to pick racetrack horses
Stewart is a poetic, whimsical college professor who wants the simple life with his wife on a rather primitive, decaying Mississippi riverboat home Stewart's accordion skills are brought to life, even if briefly, as he insists that the entire family take up musical instruments But the pre-teen son is tone deaf, and when he takes up painting he turns out to have no eye for color either The retarded discovery that he is a math prodigy brings more trouble than satisfaction, as the perplexed Stewart sadly discovers
Glynis Johns, who had been on the point of marrying Stewart in "No Highway in the Sky" back in 1951, was at last Stewart's wife in the film...
Bardot provided some diversion for the French press when she pronounced Stewart, then 57, "a gentleman with ageless sex appeal, enormous charm."